lX. Vampyre Ghost- iv.

The tea parlor's psychic transmissions, oral discussions and themes of otherworldly classical music was overwhelming to the sensitivities of one whose ability to discern each distinctly, thought by thought, word by word and note by note was often problematic. Shielding themselves allowed them to concentrate their acute senses on a singular activity like an artisan bringing abstract pictures from the creative mind to a canvass knowing the outcome of the endgame from their very first move beyond the genius of any accomplished mortal player. Having not fully explored Prim's thoughts, his repute only as an antiquarian and presently unaware he was a mercenary of sorts with deference to their existence unless there was leather in the game the vampire had accepted his terms of the prized rare tome in his possession anticipating victory from a mortal assumed to have limited linear thought patterns that lacked a full perspective as though standing in a gallery too near a great work of art to appreciate the composition of the whole. Nevertheless, Prim offered the opportunity of this brilliant game of chess calculating that his ability to absorb knowledge in detail and photographic recall would be enough to allow him to compete long enough to study this unknown vampire. Having both urban and rural experience, he could only describe his situation of finding himself among the harbinger of a new Chicago thrall like patiently observing a skeletal winter tree awaiting a rookery of ravens; therefore he hesitated before even contemplating his next chess move.